LABUBU fans were left in awe after one of the brand’s unique dolls, which typically sell for around $30, was auctioned for more than $170,000.
For those who cannot shell out thousands of dollars for the wildly popular dolls, there are several other buying options that are much more affordable.
Labubu dolls have spiked in popularity thanks to social media[/caption]
Labubu dolls, sold by Chinese retailer Pop Mart, sell for around $30 each[/caption]
Labubu dolls, made by Chinese retailer Pop Mart, have risen in popularity thanks to social media, taking the world by storm due to their adorable yet odd appearance.
Known for their pointy ears, large eyes, and mischievous toothy grin, Labubu dolls are sold as figurines, plushies, bag charms, and the particularly popular blind boxes, which retail for $27.99.
The monster-like figures have even made an appearance in the world of A-listers, with the bag charms seen on the arms of celebrities like Dua Lipa, Rihanna, and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink.
The popularity of the dolls has driven up their price tag in the resale market, with the collectibles selling upwards of $100 on platforms like eBay.
At the Yongle International Auction in Beijing earlier this month, a life-size Labubu doll sold for over $170,000, per NBC.
A life-size Labubu figurine auctioned for over $170,000 in China earlier this month[/caption]
The mint-colored figure, standing four feet tall, sold for 1.24 million yuan, or roughly $172,798.
Made of hard-plastic PVC, the large doll is the only one of its kind.
At the event, which attracted nearly 1,000 bidders online and in-person, another life-size Labubu that measured over five feet tall raked in more than $130,000.
The third priciest sale was an over $80,000 set from the “Three Wise Labubu” series, featuring a doll crossing its arms, another making a peekaboo gesture, and a third covering its mouth.
All 48 of the available Labubu collectibles were purchased by the end of the auction, pulling in roughly $520,000 in total sales.
The “intense” bidding showed the “growing momentum of pop art in the auction market,” according to event organizer Yongle, which shared that it would begin hosting Labubu auctions “regularly.”
LABUBU LOVE
The craze over Labubus began with Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong-born artist who was inspired by the Nordic fairy tales in the Netherlands and created a picture book series called The Monsters in 2015.
The book series featured a playful tribe of elves named Labubus and quickly rose to popularity, coming to the attention of Pop Mart, a Chinese retailer known for its blind box collectibles.
The company teamed up with Lung in 2019 to produce and sell the Labubu dolls as physical figures and plushies, which have since become a global phenomenon as fans collect, trade, and display them.
Labubu Doll Bestsellers
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- The Monsters Labubu Tasty Macarons, $43 – buy here
- The Monsters Labubu Have a Seat, $64.20 – buy here
- Coca-Cola Series Vinyl Face, $63.13 – buy here
- The Monsters Labubu Fall in Wild, $107 – buy here
- The Monsters Labubu Zimomo Angel in Clouds, $413 – buy here
- Labubu x Prnounce Wings of Fantasy, $1,019 – buy here
For those unable to afford the hefty $170,000 price tag seen at the auction, there are a number of more affordable options to purchase the dolls.
The dolls, mainly sold via Pop Mart, are known to sell out rapidly.
The key-ring versions are consistently selling out online in just minutes according to reports, and the drop of The Monsters: Big Into Energy Series on April 25 on StockX sold out in record time.
A handful of the releases have been resold on platforms including Kicks Crew, StockX, and Amazon.
On Kicks Crew, prices for Labubus range from $22 for vinyl figures to $900 for rare plushies, while on StockX, shoppers have spotted vinyl figures starting at $20 and highly rare figures selling for as much as $1,800, according to Rolling Stone.
Fans can also still find several purchasing options for the plush blind boxes from the newest Labubu series on Amazon, ranging in price from $78.99 for a single box to $487 for a complete set.
Labubus have also been resold on platforms such as Etsy and eBay.
Walmart is selling its own dupe of the Labubu toy that went viral on TikTok – and it’s $10 cheaper than the real thing.
Meanwhile, Labubu doll fans are crying “This is terrifying!” after discovering what’s behind the viral toy’s cute, furry exterior.
Labubu dolls have come to be known as a status symbol, even adorned on expensive designer Hermes bags[/caption]
